#fmor

1. Google Translate 2. In the Chrome browser, automatic translation of many languages is available. USE IT for many of the following links. Get Chrome 3. Search for the *phrase* you want and the language, and skip past the automatic translations. “Russian phrasebook” or “Japanese phrasebook” is helpful. This is better than Google Translate for idioms. 4. “Speak Russian like Russians” is a tutoring website that’s really handy for phrases and discussion.  5. Russian Lessons  (More phrases, grammar, etc. if you really want to get into it.) 6. How to say I Love You in Japanese

Travel in general 1. Search in google for the city your character is leaving from and the city they’re going to like, “Flights from Tokyo to Saint Petersburg, Russia” and it will take you to a “fill this out to find flights” section.  That’s the fastest, most direct way to get a list of flights for a specific day. 2. Aggregating sites like orbitz.com, travelocity.com, kayak.com and expedia.com all have their own quirks and odds and ends that make them more or less useful for finding flights, cruises, etc.  Why find specific flights? It helps you know which airports they might be laying over in, how long they’re going to be travelling, and if it’s REALLY possible to get from the Men’s medal ceremony in Japan to Russia in time for the exhibition.  (Answer requires knowing where the competitions are, when the competitions are, and deciding, ultimately, to do exactly what the show did and make your competitions in different spaces.) 3. Google maps! This is is a huge one for knowing how far apart things are in time. You can search a place, click maps, and then pick transit, walking, airplane.... it will give you travel times. I spend so much time in google maps I cannot even tell you. 4. If you really, REALLY want to get fine detail, set up a tour, walk around, see it mapped out in 3d.... You want Google Earth. Buildings in 3d. Driving tours. Different layers of data. You can get a feel for what it looks like from the ground, from the air... not perfect, but enough to flesh out the world they inhabit. 5. Flight time calculation! Say someone REALLY wants your character to be someplace at a specific time, and charters a private jet to bring them. Do a quick search to find out what kinds of private fleets might exist in that part of the world, pick a plane whose interior brings up...suitable accommodations... and then enter the airports they’re flying between and the model of the aircraft, and you get information such as “If they leave Saint Petersburg at 6 pm in a Gulfstream G550, their flight time to Tokyo will be 8 hours and 47 minutes.” But there’s a 6 hour time difference. So they’ll set down at 2:47 +6= 8:47 am Tokyo time. Google can tell you the time difference. So handy!

St. Petersburg resources:

1. In fics based in the US, I use Zillow.com all the flippin’ time to find my characters plausible housing and look at interiors in the geographic areas they’re living in. Zillow... isn’t in Russia. But they have something very like a hybrid between Zillow, Craigslist and Ebay.... called Avito. this has a TON of real estate in it. SO MUCH. You can even search on the map. Use Chrome. Allow it to translate. Go here. Pick “Apartments” or whatever other category you’re wanting, and then wait for the translation to happen (magic!!!!) and then click “see on the map”. Twice. Now you can find the area you are interested in (more on that later) and zoom in to see what’s nearby. How much things cost (drop “how much is X rubles in dollars” into google search to get a feel for what the numbers mean) and how big things are is one thing you’ll get, but you’ll also see interior pics of apartments and get a rapid feel for the local decorating sense.  Whether this is what the locals use, I don’t know. But it’s PERFECT for fanfic purposes. Look at this adorable 2-bedroom! It’s so close to the rink! 2. Oh yeah! They skate! They probably skate here!  (That site has more english resources for expats than just the skating rink, which is the primary reason I’m including it.) At the Figure Skating Academy! 3. But for large, international competitions, they’d be more likely to skate here, at the Ice Palace (our boy Yuuri is moving up in the world from the Ice Castle.) Chrome is capable of translating all of these pretty reasonably. 

Figure Skating in General and some weirdly specific stuff for just after the series.

1. So the show doesn’t follow the “where things happened this year” accurate to the real world, but they usually use the dates and times. So it’s useful, when looking at when something probably is/was, to start with the ISF.   Golden Skate has a similar list, easier to parse. You can jump down the rabbit hole for individual events to get as much detail as you want/need. 2. For example, we know Russian Nationals happened between the 22nd and the 25th of December, and here’s a schedule.  3. Japan had Nationals the same weekend, but their schedule was really different, so Yuuri would have started skating skating Friday, ended Saturday, had a day break, and then what you don’t see there is an exhibition. You can tell a lot about a schedule even if you can’t read Japanese. highlight, copy, paste to Google Translate if you really need to know, Reader doesn’t translate automatically, mores the pity. I can explain why it would be impractical if someone is curious. 4. On a lot of the international competitions (not linking, follow the rabbit hole in line one of this section) you can find competitor contracts that tell you how much money the various positions can win, which expenses are covered and how much money they might lose skipping out on the exhibition. 5. After the All Japan national championship, this happened. 6. Figure skating info from Wikipedia is variable, but if there’s ever a “This was translated in part from the Japanese page, see the original” link, click on it, and let your browser translate. There are probably more links and more scheduling information. You will probably NOT have to do this for international events. But you probably will for Russian or Japanese ones. Most useful thing about wikipedia is showing you the real world scores that are happening, distributions of scores, and what cities have hosted events (if the actual city isn’t convenient. I’m looking at you 25 hours to get from Osaka to wherever the fuck they had the Russian Championship this past year. I just vaguely remember “Hockey arena “Tractor” showing up a lot in the translations.)

Oh yeah... Laws, Visas, and Immigration

I’m going to be general here because I already shut the tabs down.  1. If you have a question like, “How bad is it for gays in Russia” just search that and read some of the news stories that pop up.  2. If your question is more specific, search that. “Is gay marriage legal in Russia?” or “Can a gay partner of a russian national get citizenship?” 3. Remember that travel between some countries is easier with some than others. Russia and Japan are NOT an easy match. Search terms like, “Get a visa to Russia from Japan” will give you a lot of information. Our boys get in on sports visas very easily. 4. Remember the human factor. Strings can be pulled. (aka: How to give the least diplomatic person in the entire series diplomatic immunity for shits and giggles. “Because it’s funny” is as good a justification as any in fluffy fanfic.)